Has RMI finally come up with a good home energy efficiency rating system?
kevin_in_denver
| Posted in General Questions on
https://www.rmi.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/RMI_An-MPG-for-Homes_Report_2017-1.pdf
I’ve said for years that a raw HERS score is useless to an average homebuyer.
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Replies
Kevin,
The important question that seems to be unanswered (to me) is: Is the score meaningful or meaningless?
These paragraphs from the report are not encouraging:
"Both Utility Score and Tendril calculate utility cost estimates using datasets with information about home size and age, climate, and local utility rates. Each company’s data scientists use different algorithms and modeling methods to arrive at estimates in “scores” from one to 100...
"In addition to the sources of the data, portals will need to transparently communicate the likely accuracy of their estimates. No score—algorithm or home-based—is entirely free of potential errors. In-person assessments can suffer from data management and recording issues and rate errors, and remote, algorithm-based scores can also experience errors from data quality and the ability of the algorithms to estimate the utility-cost estimates. Some portals are experimenting with “Claim Your Home” features so that the homeowner or listing agent of record can provide more detail about a particular property and modify the score with an implied responsibility for accuracy. Although a combination of algorithm-based scores and self-reported adjustments may not deliver the level of accuracy required for some transactions, like mortgage-lending decisions, the existence of baseline estimates for all homes can be a driver for more intensive home assessments."
IMO, HERS scores are very useful, including all variables to it, its a good start point on the efficiency conversation, specially when it starts all ratings on the same level. It just needs to be explained correctly.
Its no different than MPG ratings are used for vehicle purchases information, even though we all know the MPG accuracy depends on many factors unrelated to manufacturers, like driver preferences, road conditions, upkeep and maintenance, etc.